I met Souyo again, tied up in a hospital, about 2 years after I had witnessed his death. I was rotting in a set of armour, well-designed to restrain psychiatric patients, perfectly served its purpose by barely allowing me even to rotate my eyeballs. Only when my father assisted me in angling my body toward the door gently like I was the crab meat inside of a roll of sushi, I could see Souyo in an apron standing by the door and smiling, just like when he used to at our home.

“I made you some bourguignon.” He said, his voice hauntingly echoing the very memories he had left me.

“I’ll leave you two alone for a while,” My father said, locking the door when he left, “welcome back.”

As Souyo put the pot onto my bedside table, his hand accidentally nudged a vase over the edge. Normally, I was the one catching something he dropped as fast as a monkey, but he didn’t seem flustered to do it himself, just gently quivering his fingers, before the falling vase suddenly stopped in the middle of the air.

“I cried for you a lot, you know,” I said, my eyes locked onto him as he returned the vase to its rightful place on the table. “after you faked your death. How did you manage to do that in such a real way? I really thought you were dead.”

“Maybe I really was dead. Death is a relative concept.” He mused, blinked at me, produced a bowl seemingly out of thin air and began ladling meats into it, “For example. Suppose someone decides to leave society forever and live on an outer planet for at least a century or two. In that case, there will be one day when no one remembers her face, her voice, or her smile—technically, this person no longer exists anymore, which is how we imagine death. but she biologically still lives somewhere.”

“Of course, there are other circumstances that reflect death.” He continued, “But I am sure you already get to know more than one of them. How do you feel? I wouldn’t have the courage to—”

“—Hide and live in the mortuary for three days? You can get used to it. There’s this new thing in Japan called capsule hotel and sleeping in a corpse fridge felt just like living in that.” I asked, “My bourguignon is getting cold—Mind unleashing my hands?”

He tried pulling the bolts on my armour but failed to move it for even an inch. “Not just any mortuary—a government-owned mortuary especially for condemned criminals.” He said, blowing on the fulfilled spoon and filling in my mouth. “Compares to what you did a few years ago — you know I don’t judge you — but it is like you are intentionally trying to draw the government’s attention.”

“You don’t need to remind me that, I had government agents visit.” I said, “I think they start to think that I am a psycho. Wait for a second—you must be real. Are you real? Am I really a psycho that can see dead people by now?”

“Is there anything I can do to prove that I am real?” He smiled.

“I want ice cream. Three scoops of cherry pecans, with extra cherries. If you can wave your hand and ice cream just appears in the air, then I must be dreaming.”

And to think about that, it was the first magical thing I learned—magic can’t turn thin air into ice cream. He used his rapier to prise up the bolts, pulled me out of the armour, and waited by my bedside for my numbed legs to recover to the level I was able to walk. He then checked the window for a moment when no one was watching and hopped off the building with me in his arms, I felt the gravity pulling me downwards, but the second before his feet crashed on the ground, we stopped, and stepped onto concrete.

I planned an escape for days and never thought it would be that easy.

“Just like old times, I pop up whenever your dad finds that he couldn’t solve your questions.” Souyo naturally scooped his ice cream and moved half of his into my bowl, “You see, our family rule on you, is that you decide everything for yourself. But then, joining NC5 isn’t going to be a choice, in some ways, the Chinese government forces you to join it.”

“You mean these agents I met in that hospital?”

“They are from Guozihao Diwuzu—The 507th Research Institute of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, not many live people still know that name or know it doesn’t really do any research.” He picked up his coffee and took a sip, I wondered how his teeth could bear the torture of cold with immediate hot. “Their committee is overrun by Haos, anyway. Why not consider a job opportunity that you got to work with your dad, uncles and aunt all together?”

“I’m lazy, I don’t want to work. ” I said, back then sunshine cast through the glass wall and I was still able to fantasize, “Can’t I start somewhere in a magical school? Most chosen ones’ stories start from some kind of school life.”

“NC5 doesn’t really have a school—unless you count the personal tutors, like these you have right now. it might be more similar to an agency that gives you basic ideas and immediately puts you to work.”

My body shivered at the mere thought of bringing my home teachers to Beijing, working under their watchful eyes alongside nearly all my family members, “I guess Beijing is not an option, then,” I said, “Don’t you have some kind of guidebook for me to speed-run my study instead of going somewhere to learn?”

The way he took out a few hefty books from his inner coat pocket reminded me of magicians conjuring a rabbit out of their hats. None of the books had hard covers or fancy illustrations like regular books, so I randomly picked up the one with the longest author name, and the first page of the book basically almost discouraged me from continuing to read.

“This is an isolated phenomenon among widespread occurrences in a particular bitter era of human history—”

I promptly closed the book, marched straight into the kitchen, and dropped it in a pot of bubbling hot cherry syrup. For a long time before the waitress served us a new dish that I named “desert isle of knowledge,” All Souyo and I did was exchange knowing glances and shared smiles.

“Add that name to your menu.” I told the waitress, “Whoever dares to bother me again in your shop like last time, I’ll order that and use the book.”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Last time?” Souyo inquired, puzzled.

“Someone was being arrogant at this shop when you were away, so I used a dish to dislocate his jaw.” I said, “Don’t you have an easier-to-read book?”

The waitress wasted no time fleeing when as soon as my attention went back to Souyo. “Is this one not entertaining?” Souyo fished the poor book out of the syrup pond, “—‘Introduction to Dynamics,’ third edition—It is quite popular among younger people, according to what your cousins said when they lent it to me.”

“You are feeding Deyi and Dejie’s university-level knowledge to a 13-year-old and forcing him to swallow, Souyo.” I grabbed his cup and had a long sip, felt no bitterness because my mind was already numbed by the book. “I can only understand 3 out of 5 words in the first sentence and the three words I understand are ‘this,’ ‘is’ and ‘a.’ Besides, nobody enjoys reading background settings, I don’t even bother to read Warhammer 40k core book so why should I find it interesting to read something so scholarly?”

“Hey, you're throwing around fancy words like 'scholarly' too,” He carefully wiped the hardcover with wet napkins as that would revive the book, and put it back into his pocket, “Well, I suppose that means we'll have to look elsewhere.”

“Do you think that government thing will allow Dr Pepper, cherry pecan ice cream, and Trash Film Friday?” I pondered.

“Definitely not as often offered as your current frequency.” He leaned back and looked me into my eyes with his shining violet eyes, “I personally find Beijing a desert of good cuisine, anyway.”

I sighed, slumping forward and resting my chest and arms on the table. “Is there any other way I can escape?”

“I used to have a solution, but it's no longer an option. Alternatively, you could seek refuge at your aunt's ranch for a while—”

“That’s gonna be even worse than joining the NC5!” I jumped up from my chair uncontrollably, “Can you imagine me graduating from Rice and spending the rest of my life being a dentist and doing fast draw competitions as the only hobby for the rest of my life?”

"Nona seems content with that life track," Souyo remarked.

“But then, I’m not sister Nona.” I muttered, and fell onto the chair as the bones in my spine vanished by a spell,  the name I'd recently heard from my mom echoing in my thoughts. “So— Skyward.”

“Skyward.” Souyo repeated, “Embrace capitalism.”

“Compared to being a part of the brainless nationalism or living a miserable life in Texas heat, it seems like a mega-corporation isn’t so bad now.” I poured the rest of the ice cream into my mouth, “What should I do?”

“First of all, we both need to fill in some profiles,” Souyo said, raising his hand. With a flash of blue light crossing his palm, a binder appeared in his grasp. “Do you know what a resume is?”

“Is that a French word?” I quipped.

“Well, yeah, it means your life summary, so people know what you can do when you are seeking a job.”

I took the forms in his hand and put “Drink 12 cans of Dr Pepper without stopping” on the “speciality” chart and “vengeful and sadistic” on the “nature” chart. Souyo just sat there and watched, waiting for me to finish and took over the forms.

“We can keep the Dr Pepper part,” he said, chuckling, “but we have to put in ‘Void’ as your nature.”

The word "Void" struck me like the stamps my mom used on applications she didn't like. "Doesn't that mean I won't pass?" I wondered aloud.

“Around 70% of the entire magician populations have the nature of Void, so I’m certain that you will pass their check and find a lot of friends there.” He drew an easy smiling face on the end of the “speciality” chart, “As for the speciality, I’ll add ‘storage’ since you lived inside your Void for a week.”

“So my magical power is not special at all.”

“I wouldn't say that.” He smiled reassuringly, "Possess magical power in a world where over 7 billion people don't have it?”

“But I want to be unique—or at least have some special power that not many people share.” I said, “What is your magical power, Souyo, and how many people share yours?”

Souyo hesitated for a moment.“The name is quite hard to pronounce—”

“Just say it.”

“Ethercinetique Voie Normandie, it messes with physical movements in a certain area.” Souyo eventually decided to divulge in order to destroy my feelings, “It is only used by members of the House of Normandy, so maybe, a hundred or two share it.” 

I quietly took over a plate of spaghetti from a passing server and buried my face in noodles, and Souyo spent the later minutes smoothing my back to stop my coughs and helping me sneeze the red sauce out of my nose. “Come on, it can’t possibly be that bad to have Void.” He attempted to console me, “I can think of two Demi-immortals like me who can master Void magic and outrank me.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you are the Chosen One in 11 years of us living together?!” I retched, “Spit it out! Spit your Chosen One energy out and let me eat it!”

“No, I don’t think you can change your nature with something that you spill out.” Souyo said as he gently wiped my mouth with a serviette. “Also, why are you so fascinated with the title of the Chosen One?”

“Screw you!”

“Yes, yes, screw me.” he patiently waited with a smile until I could finally catch my breath, “Do you feel less likely to die on a plate of pasta now?”

“At least dying to a plate of pasta is somehow unique.” I retorted, sitting back with his help up, “And now I’ll end up being the nobody in an adventure story that spends its whole life killing lowest-grade vampires, zombies and werewolves without being noticed until the story ends.” 

“Vampires?” He asked, slowly nailing another to my coffin, “What vampires?”

“Don’t you have these blood-sucking but surprisingly attractive human-looking things in your society?”

“What are we talking about, Fifty Shades of Grey?” He looked surprised, “I know a few years ago there was a magician who read too many fantasy novels and drank raw blood, but then she was sent to the hospital due to parasites in her digestive system.”

“Actually, the vampire one is Twilight.” interjected from the booth behind Souyo's back, “Fifty Shades of Grey is about a Rich guy who falls in love with a college student.”

We simultaneously looked at the hidden waitress. “How much did you hear?” We asked.

“Well…I was going to ask for your number…and the manager says I can take the day off if I manage to deliver that book to you.” The girl’s face folded like a pug when she smiled, “So…are you guys writing a novel?”

“What do we do in this kind of situation?” I whispered to him in English, “Snap her neck?”

“Yeah, we are working on something,” Souyo responded with an air of charm, passing a notebook to her, “You wouldn’t mind being our beta reader?”

She opened the notebook happily while I smelled burnt almonds. The way Souyo rotated his body on the pivot of the booth and enveloped the waitress’s figure when she fell looked delicate as he was just dancing, and he was even kind enough to help an unconscious body to lie comfortably on the booth.

“Is she dead?” I craned my neck to look at the new Sleeping Beauty.

“No, but I might just overdose her.” Souyo admitted, “She might wake up without the memory of this week rather than just an hour.”

“It is so sad that memory wipes nowadays don’t require a dress code of black suits and end with a blinding flash.”

“Yeah, no, technology is evolving.” Souyo grabbed the notebook on the ground and returned it back into his coat. He pinched onto the emblem clipped to that thing called a resume, and it disappeared in a group of dense but tiny, black clouds. “Application completed— But what hasn’t changed, is that we need to retreat and pretend we were never here.”

“Where else can we stay?”

“I’m eager to show you what we’ve built during these years.” The key chain danced on Souyo’s finger for three rounds, “Do you still remember the passcode for that mansion in Vancouver?”